April 26 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote congratulations to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich in Ponkapog, Mass.
I rejoice with you.. This is from habit, temperament, training, tradition—that straitjacket which keeps its grip on us always & won’t allow our common sense any little liberty to work. And I rejoice with you in earnest, I can’t help it. Oh, I know—I know. I have stood where Talbot stands, & was happy: happy, & not afraid. What riches! And now—what poverty! Life is a silly invention, an immeasurable brutality. Now, then——
x x x x
Hang it, I am in this mood, & I don’t seem to able to drag myself out of it. There are but two tragedies—birth and marriage—& when they occur among friends whom I hold dear, they break my heart, they disorder my mind, they drive me into rages. Then I say unbecoming things; yet I have to say them, I can’t quiet down until I get them out of me. I have seen a good deal of Howells, lately, & he is as sweet as ever he was in his life. I am leaving for Dublin, N. H., for a long summer, & am impatient to start, for I have led a turmoilsome life this winter, & am tired to the bone.
With great love to the 3 of you—& the prospective fourth— [MTP]. Note: Talbot Aldrich, son just married.
I rejoice with you.. This is from habit, temperament, training, tradition—that straitjacket which keeps its grip on us always & won’t allow our common sense any little liberty to work. And I rejoice with you in earnest, I can’t help it. Oh, I know—I know. I have stood where Talbot stands, & was happy: happy, & not afraid. What riches! And now—what poverty! Life is a silly invention, an immeasurable brutality. Now, then——
x x x x
Hang it, I am in this mood, & I don’t seem to able to drag myself out of it. There are but two tragedies—birth and marriage—& when they occur among friends whom I hold dear, they break my heart, they disorder my mind, they drive me into rages. Then I say unbecoming things; yet I have to say them, I can’t quiet down until I get them out of me. I have seen a good deal of Howells, lately, & he is as sweet as ever he was in his life. I am leaving for Dublin, N. H., for a long summer, & am impatient to start, for I have led a turmoilsome life this winter, & am tired to the bone.
With great love to the 3 of you—& the prospective fourth— [MTP]. Note: Talbot Aldrich, son just married.
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